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Anchorage police arrested Randy Lee Osborne, 56 (right), and John Lambert Voisin, 51 (left), Thursday in connection with Jan. 13 and Jan. 18 robberies of a Shell gas station at 3635 Mountain View Dr. Police say additional charges in other crimes may be forthcoming against the men. (Courtesy APD / February 1, 2013) |
The Anchorage Police Department arrested two men in two robberies of the same Shell gas station in Mountain View in less than a week last month, saying they may be charged in connection with other crimes.
According to APD spokesperson Anita Shell, 51-year-old John Lambert Voisin and 56-year-old Randy Lee Osborne were separately taken into custody Thursday. Police released their names to the media Wednesday.
Investigators say a clerk at the Shell station at 3635 Mountain View Dr., the location hit by both robberies, recognized Osborne during the first heist at 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 13. According to police, Osborne -- who was on parole for two murders committed during a pair of 1976 robberies in Fairbanks -- implied he had a gun, but never produced one.
With Osborne fingered in the first robbery, police suspected Voisin, a known associate of Osborne, in the gas station’s second robbery shortly before 10 p.m. on Jan. 18. According to APD, Voisin was armed with a handgun during the incident.
“A press release was sent out on January 30 asking for the public’s assistance in locating both men,” Shell wrote in a Friday statement on the case. “A call received by the Crime Stoppers hotline assisted police in these investigations.”
Police received their first break in the case at roughly 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, when a vehicle connected with Voisin was pulled over on a traffic stop that led to his arrest. Hours after Voisin was located, police arrested Osborne while he was walking down a street in Fairview at about 10 p.m.
Osborne was arrested on two warrants APD obtained after the Jan. 13 gas-station robbery, including one for first-degree robbery and one for violating parole. Voisin was arrested on a misdemeanor warrant on previous charges of failure to appear, fourth-degree theft and violating conditions of release; he was later charged with first-degree robbery in the Jan. 18 heist.
Shell praised the work of officers in APD's Special Assignment Unit, which arrested Voisin and Osborne on the same day that it took into custody 23-year-old Sabre Layne Pearl and his girlfriend, 20-year old Marissa Quimby-Hayes, in an unrelated West Anchorage shooting.
The charging documents against Randy Lee Osborne and John Lambert Voisin revealed more details behind the alleged robberies the men committed.
Osborne went by the nickname of “Hawkeye,” according to charging documents. Surveillance video also matched up with a gas station employee’s report of the Jan. 13 robbery in Mountain View.
The worker told police that he knew “Hawkeye” from jail and that “Hawkeye” was being treated for cancer and was dying when the suspect held-up the gas station wearing his hood, but no mask.
“Hawkeye” demanded the money in the register, and the employee gave the suspect $438.00. The worker reported that he never saw a handgun, but knew that the suspect served time for homicide and had his right hand in a vest pocket.
“Hawkeye” was spotted entering the passenger seat of an unknown SUV that drove away.
Anchorage police checked with the Anchorage Jail booking system and discovered that Randy Lee Osborne went by the moniker of “Hawkeye.”
Charging documents connected John Lambert Voisin to the Jan. 18 robbery at the same Shell gas station in Mountain View.
A witness told detectives that Voisin allegedly spoke about robbing the same gas station twice.
Surveillance revealed that a suspect wearing a mask pulled out a revolver with his right hand and stole $180. Police matched the suspect’s description to Voisin, who had a similar pair of white shoes compared to the robbery footage.
Voisin admitted to police that he had a revolver and said that he was right handed, but denied any involvement in the robbery, according to the charging documents.
Voisin and Osborne are being held at the Anchorage Jail and were arraigned Friday afternoon. Voisin’s bail was set at $20,000 with a $5,000 performance bond, while Osborne’s bail was set at $75,000; both men require a third-party custodian to be released.
Friday’s charges may not be the only ones ahead for Voisin and Osborne, with four local chain restaurants robbed in recent weeks. Police believe robberies at a South Anchorage Subway restaurant, a Downtown Pizza Hut location and an Airport Heights Burger King were committed by a Hispanic or Pacific Islander man -- but described the suspects in a Sunday South Anchorage Pizza Hut robbery as two white men in their fifties.
“Detectives are looking at other robberies to determine whether or not one or both of the men were involved,” Shell wrote in a statement. “Additional charges may be forthcoming.”
Contact Chris Klint
Editor's Note: Details from the charging documents were added to the Saturday update of this story by KTUU's Neil Torquiano.
